The boys and girls high school basketball seasons are on in Illinois, opening the door for other high contact sports to play this year — as well as potential lawsuits. […]
“IHSA may have their views of it, but school districts know what the rules are,” Pritzker said. “It’s unfortunate, but [school districts] would probably be taking on legal liability if they went ahead and moved beyond what the state had set as the mitigation standard.”
[IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson] was asked about the risk of lawsuits the IHSA might potentially face.
“You know at some point, I think over the next month or whatever time frame we’ll figure out if this is a legal issue for us as an association or if it is for our schools and then we’ll have to pivot as we’ve been pivoting a number of times throughout this school year.”
It’s probably more about the schools. But we’ll see.
“The problem you are going to have is, even if you have parents sign waivers, if a kid gets [COVID-19] and then goes out and gives it to someone else, you have a potential of a lawsuit against the school district,” [Attorney Terry Ekl] said. “The basis of the lawsuit is they ignored the Illinois Department of Public Health and went ahead and allowed these kids to play.” […]
“There’s a proof issue involved here, but that doesn’t mean the school district is not going to get sued and have to engage in costly defensive litigation,” Ekl said. “Sometimes the cost of litigation exceeds the cost proven to be a damage. You win the case, and you still have to pay the cost of defense, which could be tens of thousands of dollars.” […]
“[Insurance carriers] may very well say to the school district, ‘If the department of public health is saying they are recommending you should not play basketball, and you go ahead and do it, we would negate your insurance coverage,’” Ekl said. “‘We’re telling you right now you should not engage in athletic activities that are in conflict with the Illinois Department of Public Health.’”
Ekl said a group of parents approached him last month about suing the IHSA. He said he researched the matter and ended up turning down the case, which was dismissed by a DuPage County judge Oct. 1.
I covered the courthouse beat in a previous life. The lawsuit will read something like this, “Good ol’ Hometown High fielded a basketball team in the midst of a pandemic, disregarding state medical guidelines. As a result of this negligence, athletes suffered illness, resulting in death.”
And, given the strong, consistent pronouncements of state officials, that’s a difficult argument to refute.
What’s more, the Illinois State Board of Education also Tweeted that due to liability issues schools, should think carefully before plunging ahead with the basketball season.
In terms of standing up for student-athletes, I suppose you could interpret the IHSA’s actions that way. Given the fact that athletes could possibly be exposed to infected individuals by competing with students outside their circle, the organization’s response seems less heroic.
…Adding… I meant to post this and somehow forgot. Sorry…
Chicago Public Schools will likely not play basketball this winter. The CPS sent a memo to schools on Thursday announcing that girls and boys high school and elementary school basketball is postponed until further notice and possibly moved to the spring or summer of 2021.
“While the Illinois High School Association has not removed high school basketball from its winter sports calendar, [Gov. J.B. Pritzker] and [the Illinois Department of Public Health] have determined that basketball presents a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission and is not safe to play this winter,” the email from CPS said.
Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) are announcing COVID-19 resurgence mitigations will be implemented in Region 6—East-Central Illinois—beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, November 2, 2020. The region has seen a 7-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8 percent or above for three consecutive days, which exceeds the thresholds set for establishing mitigation measures under the state’s Restore Illinois Resurgence Plan. Region 6 includes Iroquois, Ford, Dewitt, Piatt, Champaign, Vermillion, Macon, Moultrie, Douglas, Edgar, Shelby, Coles, Cumberland, Clark, Fayette, Effingham, Jasper, Crawford, Clay, Richland, and Lawrence counties.
The administration continues to provide relief for small businesses impacted by the ongoing pandemic, distributing more than $32 million in emergency grants and assistance to Region 6 alone. Moving forward, businesses in Region 6, as well as other regions currently under additional mitigations, will receive priority consideration for the current round of the historic Business Interruption Grants (BIG) program. To date, through BIG, more than $42 million has been directed to regions currently under mitigations or where mitigations will soon take effect. These programs are guided by an equity framework and seek to address the hardest hit communities with emergency relief dollars.
“As of this morning, Region 6 has now sustained an average positivity rate of 8 percent or higher for three days, today hitting 8.6 percent – meaning that, starting Monday, they will join the majority of the state in operating under resurgence mitigations,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “With community transmission rates on the rise all around our state, it’s more important than ever to take caution, mask up, avoid gatherings and ensure your family gets through this as safe as can be. Let’s remember that the quickest way we get kids back into schools and businesses open and workers employed is to bring down infections, positivity rates, and hospitalizations in our communities – and that means mask up, wash up, back up, and sleeve up to get your flu shot.”
“We are on the precipice of the entire state entering into mitigation,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “These last few regions have seen rapid increases in test positivity, one right after another, because of increasing disease spread throughout our communities. We need all people to adhere to both the community mitigation measures and well as personal and family measures so we can swiftly turn our entire state around.”
Mitigation measures taking effect November 2 in Region 6 include:
Bars
No indoor service
All outside bar service closes at 11:00 p.m.
All bar patrons should be seated at tables outside
No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)
Tables should be 6 feet apart
No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
No dancing or standing indoors
Reservations required for each party
No seating of multiple parties at one table
Restaurants
No indoor dining or bar service
All outdoor dining closes at 11:00 p.m.
Outside dining tables should be 6 feet apart
No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
Reservations required for each party
No seating of multiple parties at one table
Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings
Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity
No party buses
Gaming and Casinos close at 11:00 p.m., are limited to 25 percent capacity, and follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable
These mitigations do not apply to schools or polling places.
From the onset of the pandemic, support for small businesses has been one of the central features of the Pritzker administration’s COVID-19 response. Since March, the administration has launched a menu of small business and community relief programs – with over $500 million in grants and programs launched by the Illinois Department for Economic Opportunity (DCEO), including emergency hospitality grants, a downstate small business stabilization program, Fast Track Capital, and more. For more information on programs available for businesses and communities, please visit DCEO’s website.
DCEO is also actively processing reimbursements for local governments impacted by COVID-19 via the state’s Local CURES program. Thus far, nearly $5 million has been awarded to governments in Region 6 to help cover the costs of the emergency response, with eligible costs including PPE and other public health expenses. All eligible governments in Region 6 can submit their certification to the department and begin submitting reimbursement requests. For more information on programs available for businesses and communities, please visit DCEO’s website.
Region 6 is currently seeing an 8.6% positivity rate, an increase from 5.2% in mid-September, a summer peak of 6.2% over Labor Day weekend, and a low of 1.1% in late-June. While nearly every region is seeing sustained increases in both positivity and hospitalization rates, today the COVID-related hospital admissions in Region 6 have tripled since mid-September now averaging 18 admissions per day.
In the coming days, IDPH will continue to track the positivity rate in Region 6 to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigations should remain in place. If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% for three consecutive days, then the regions will return to Phase 4 mitigations under the Restore Illinois Plan. If the positivity rate averages between 6.5% and 8%, the new mitigations will remain in place and unchanged. If the positivity rate averages greater than or equal to 8% after 14 days, more stringent mitigations may be applied to further reduce spread of the virus.
Every region is being closely monitored since as of today, including Region 6, a total of ten of the state’s 11 regions have triggered one of the state’s failsafe state-action metric. Regions 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 will all operate under Tier 1 mitigation measures by the end of this weekend, given that these regions continue to report a 7-day rolling positivity rate above 8%. Regions 10 and 11 are now operating under Tier 1 mitigations after triggering additional mitigations based on sustained increases in both positivity and hospitalization rates. Region 1 is currently operating under Tier 2 mitigation measures after continuing to see a rise in positivity even under the Tier 1 mitigation framework, with the highest rolling positivity average in the state.
As part of the administration’s robust response to the pandemic, the state continues to strengthen its nation-leading testing operation. Today, Illinois reported a record high of 95,111 tests in a single day. The administration is building upon this groundbreaking progress, given that testing remains a critical step to reduce further spread of the virus. For a more targeted approach, the state provides mobile testing allowing testing to be directed toward communities most impacted by COVID-19. In Region 6, mobile testing has been deployed in Richland County today, in Effingham on Sunday, and in Macon at the Decatur Civic Center from today through Sunday. Next week, Region 6 will have a testing site from November 2 through November 8 at the Danville Area Community College. To find the nearest testing center, please visit DPH.Illinois.Gov/Testing.
IDPH will continue to work closely with local health departments in Region 6 to provide education to the public and offer information to businesses and organizations on keeping residents safe. The significance of face coverings, social distancing, and hand washing have been consistently emphasized by the administration throughout the pandemic.
A full list of mitigation measures pertaining to some businesses and industries may be found
*** UPDATE *** The entire state will likely be in mitigation in a few days…
UPDATE: Region 2, including #Peoria, has just recorded its first day with a positivity rate over 8% — reaching 8.5% in numbers released today. If those numbers stay above 8% for two more days, the restrictions linked earlier in this thread will apply here.
Lab tests from wells near Nicor Gas’ oldest underground natural gas storage facility detected alarming levels of benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer.
In a violation notice issued in December 2019, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency alleged the state’s largest natural gas company broke the law and threatened the quality of groundwater when it dumped the carcinogenic wastewater into the soil.
Federal safety standards set the limit of benzene at five parts per billion. According to lab tests obtained in a Target 3 investigation, the benzene found in eight Nicor Gas wells exceeded federal safety standards for three consecutive months. One test conducted in February of 2019 detected 26,000 parts of benzene per billion, an astounding 5,200 times higher than legally allowed.
In an emailed statement, the company said it discovered benzene during regular monthly testing and reported it immediately the state’s environmental regulators.
“Nicor Gas and the IEPA have been unable to identify the source of the benzene,” spokeswoman Jennifer Golz wrote on Wednesday. “Benzene is not a chemical that we use in our processes.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, benzene “is a natural part of crude oil, gasoline,” and is a widely produced industrial chemical often associated with underground storage sites.
Gas companies like Nicor, a subsidiary of Southern Company Gas, routinely pipe fracked gas in from out of state before storing it deep underground in naturally occurring aquifers. Industry experts say the chemical liquids used in hydraulic fracturing are often kept secret as proprietary information, but several health studies and news reports have documented widespread use of benzene in fracking fluids
I saw your mention of the WCIA article about Nicor Gas, and I wanted to let you and your readers know that this downstate television station did not attempt to factcheck its reporting, nor has made the factual corrections Nicor Gas has requested. Therefore, I am reaching out to you directly to ensure you know that all Nicor Gas storage facilities are safe and in compliance with local, state and federal environmental standards and guidelines.
WCIA is presenting factually inaccurate information about the operation of our storage facilities in a misleading and irresponsible manner that alarms those in our state who rely on Nicor Gas to keep their families safe, homes warm and businesses running.
There are several inaccuracies in the WCIA report including assertions that Nicor Gas “dumped” contaminated water without regard. All produced water was discharged legally in seepage fields permitted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for more than 20 years. The presence of benzene was not identified in any of the company’s routine monitoring and analytical tests until 2018. Nicor Gas was first to detect the benzene, and we immediately reported this to the IEPA and implemented proactive corrective actions to stop benzene discharge, including disposal of the produced water in appropriate and permitted disposal facilities.
It’s important to note, as we have also shared with WCIA, that benzene is not used by Nicor or in natural gas operations. Its presence is not an effect of our work or processes.
The source of the benzene is still unknown. However, as soon as it was identified, Nicor Gas immediately shut in the extraction well where benzene was detected despite the challenges it would present to operations and distributing natural gas to our customers during the winter heating season. These events were happening during the same time as last year’s Polar Vortex. Without the added capacity of our underground storage, more than 700,000 customers would have been without heat during the dangerously cold temperatures.
If you’d like to learn more about how our storage ensures we are able to safely and reliability meet the energy needs of Illinoisans, I encourage you to visit https://www.nicorgas.com/storage.
Thank you for your time and consideration to help set the record straight.
Jennifer
Jennifer Golz
Manager, PR & Media Relations
Corporate Communications
Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield, a former restaurant owner, said during a briefing with state health officials Thursday that lawmakers were told private gatherings and universities pose a bigger transmission problem than bars and restaurants. He, too, wants to see the data Pritzker is using to determine the mitigations.
Pritzker has said that information will be made available early next week. He said it’s taken time to compile records from nearly 100 separate local health agencies.
Murphy said if “it proved to be that restaurants and bars were the reason why we cannot control the spread of this, yes I would (support the mitigations). But I haven’t seen that proved, and I’m not sure they have it.”
“There has been no data that says there has been an outbreak linked to bars and restaurants,” Bourne added.
* I told subscribers about this earlier today, but it’s important enough that I think we should go over it here now. This IDPH data is for Region 3 (which includes Springfield) through a couple weeks ago. Expect an update very soon…
“Other”…
‘Other’ means locations not selected from the 37 standard locations available to the contact tracing workers. These locations include vacation, frat house, library, fire department and a variety of other venues and may include non- responses.
As you may recall, Rep. Tim Butler, who was also at yesterday’s HGOP press conference, said he had no idea how he caught the COVID. He’s therefore an “other.”
There’s exposure data, and then there’s outbreak data. Those are two different pieces of data that are collected.
As the governor explained, the outbreak data will be where all of these individuals in the same space and time were diagnosed as cases and they’re connected to one another clearly. There’s a connection like ‘I was with you. And I developed symptoms, we were in this space,’ and these people were all connected. So that could be at a fraternity party, that could be at a wedding. Those were clearly identified outbreaks.
Most people who end up contracting the infection don’t know exactly who they got it from. They don’t say, ‘Oh, I was with so and so who was positive, that’s where I got it’. If they don’t have any idea of who they got it from, then that’s when you go into the contact tracing, in terms of identifying places that they were in the time that you would have contracted the virus.
And so from that data that you collect from all these people who were just like, ‘Well, I was here, I was there,’ it is consistent that where those people recollect that they were in the time, were bars and restaurants. Obviously, if people were in school, they will say school people who were at work will say work.
So, we already told you we’re not the ones who are going to be closing school, we’re not going to tell people not to go to work. We have to operate in the place that we can operate. And there you have, sitting there, bars and restaurants coming up time after time in the exposure sites that people were before they contracted the virus.
Thirty-seven restaurants and bars in McHenry County filed suit Thursday against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and health officials, trying to prevent enforcement of an order to shut down indoor service, which is meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A hearing was set in the matter for Friday, one day before the shutdown was scheduled to take place in Lake and McHenry counties. A similar order has been imposed in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties, and other parts of Illinois. […]
He based the legal challenge in part on the state law that gives the governor power to issue executive orders in an emergency, as Pritzker first did in March, but limits that power to 30 days. Some courts previously have upheld the governor’s power to issue consecutive orders to extend that time period indefinitely, but a downstate judge ruled this summer that the governor may not do so, a case that the state is also appealing.
Five Park Ridge restaurant owners filed a lawsuit this week against Gov. J.B. Pritzker, objecting to the governor’s latest order shutting down indoor dining at bars and restaurants.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court late Wednesday, claims Pritzker lacks the authority to issue the executive order because the emergency powers he used to issue it expired in April.
Just a ridiculous assertion.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Sam Toia of the Illinois Restaurant Association announced today that his group will develop a standard amicus brief so that it can weigh in on lawsuits as they are filed.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Welp…
A McHenry County judge denied a temporary restraining order Friday filed by 37 local bars and restaurants can remain open despite the governor’s mitigation rules that take effect Saturday.
Attorneys met Friday morning at the McHenry County courthouse in Woodstock, where they argued primarily about Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s powers or lackthereof to enforce consecutive 30-day executive orders.
McHenry County Judge Thomas Meyer said that he ruled that way because he felt that the new mitigation orders were based on new facts and were not simply an extension of Pritzker’s original executive order.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The attorney general’s office tells me that judges in DuPage and Cook counties today also denied TRO motions filed by restaurant plaintiffs.
* Three days in a row of a positivity rate at or above 8 percent leads to IDPH mitigation, and Region 3 has hit that point. The region runs from eastern Sangamon County over to the Mississippi River and as far south as Calhoun County.
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 6,363 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 56 additional deaths.
- Adams County: 1 male 70s
- Christian County: 1 male 80s
- Clark County: 1 female 80s
- Clay County: 1 female 70s
- Clinton County: 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- Cook County: 1 male 40s, 3 females 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 2 males 90s
- DeKalb County: 1 male 80s
- DuPage County; 1 female 40s, 1 female 80s
- Edgar County: 1 male 70s
- Ford County: 1 female 70s
- Kane County: 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s
- Lake County: 1 female 80s, 2 females 90s, 1 male 90s
- LaSalle County: 2 females 90s
- Livingston County: 1 female 70s
- Macon County: 1 male 30s
- Marion County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
- McDonough County: 1 male 60s
- Morgan County: 1 male 60s
- Ogle County: 1 male 60s
- Rock Island County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 90s
- St. Clair County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 80s
- Tazewell County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 90s
- Wabash County: 1 male 70s
- Wayne County: 1 male 90s
- Will County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s
- Winnebago County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 395,458 cases, including 9,675 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 83,056 specimens for a total 7,542,098. As of last night, 3,030 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 643 patients were in the ICU and 269 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from October 22 – October 28 is 6.9%. This is the number that IDPH has been consistently reporting in its daily releases and is calculated using total cases over total tests. Similar to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH has been using test positivity for regional mitigation metrics on its website since mid-July. Test positivity is calculated using the number of COVID-19 positive tests over total tests. Beginning October 29, 2020, IDPH is reporting the statewide test positivity in its daily releases. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from October 22, 2020 – October 28, 2020 is 8.2%.
Case positivity and test positivity rate are both relevant and offer insight into the bigger COVID-19 picture. Case positivity helps us understand whether changes in the number of confirmed cases is due to more testing or due to more infections. Whereas, test positivity accounts for repeated testing and helps us understand how the virus is spreading in the population over time.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
…Adding… Press release…
Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) are announcing COVID-19 resurgence mitigations will be implemented in Region 3—West-Central Illinois—beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2020. The region has seen a 7-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8 percent or above for three consecutive days, which exceeds the thresholds set for establishing mitigation measures under the state’s Restore Illinois Resurgence Plan. Region 3 includes Hancock, Adams, Pike, Calhoun, Jersey, Greene, Scott, Brown, Schuyler, Cass, Morgan, Macoupin, Montgomery, Christian, Sangamon, Logan, Menard, and Mason counties.
The administration continues to provide relief for small businesses impacted by the ongoing pandemic. Today, the administration announced that through both the historic Business Interruption Grants (BIG) program and Local CURE funding, a total of $94 million has already been deployed to Illinois businesses and communities to help offset costs and losses due to the pandemic. In Region 3 alone, nearly $40 million in emergency grants and assistance has been awarded via both programs. Moving forward, businesses in Region 3, as well as other regions currently under additional mitigations, will receive priority consideration for the current round of BIG. These programs are guided by an equity framework and seek to address the hardest hit communities with emergency relief dollars.
“As of this morning, Region 3 – which encompasses Quincy, Springfield and much of West-Central Illinois – has now sustained an average positivity rate of 8 percent or higher for three days, today hitting 8.8 percent – meaning that, starting Sunday, they will join the majority of the state in operating under resurgence mitigations,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Something has got to give, and these mitigations aim to cut down on those high-risk activities until we bring down the positivity rate in an area once again. Because let’s be clear: well-meaning and reasonable people can have fair disagreements about how and where to draw lines and connect dots – but when every single metric in every single corner of the state is trending poorly, we have to take meaningful action to keep our people safe.”
“This is the first time a central Illinois region has needed to implement mitigation measures because of increasing positivity,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “For those residents living in regions and communities where the virus didn’t seem to be ‘that bad,’ things are changing with positivity rates steadily increasing. We’ve seen regions move into and then out of mitigation, so we know the measures work. The more people adhere to the measures, the quicker we can move out of mitigation.”
Mitigation measures taking effect November 1 in Region 3 include:
Bars
No indoor service
All outside bar service closes at 11:00 p.m.
All bar patrons should be seated at tables outside
No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)
Tables should be 6 feet apart
No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
No dancing or standing indoors
Reservations required for each party
No seating of multiple parties at one table
Restaurants
No indoor dining or bar service
All outdoor dining closes at 11:00 p.m.
Outside dining tables should be 6 feet apart
No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
Reservations required for each party
No seating of multiple parties at one table
Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings
Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity
No party buses
Gaming and Casinos close at 11:00 p.m., are limited to 25 percent capacity, and follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable
These mitigations do not apply to schools or polling places.
From the onset of the pandemic, support for small businesses has been one of the central features of the Pritzker administration’s COVID-19 response. Since March, the administration has launched a menu of small business and community relief programs – with over $500 million in grants and programs launched by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), including emergency hospitality grants, a downstate small business stabilization program, Fast Track Capital, and more. For more information on programs available for businesses and communities, please visit DCEO’s website.
DCEO is also actively processing reimbursements for local governments impacted by COVID-19 via the state’s Local CURES program. To date, more than $8.5 million has been awarded to governments in Region 3 to help cover the costs of the emergency response, with eligible costs including PPE and other public health expenses. All eligible governments in Region 3 can submit their certification to the department and begin submitting reimbursement requests. For more information on programs available for businesses and communities, please visit DCEO’s website.
Region 3 is currently seeing an 8.8 percent positivity rate, an increase from 4.6 percent in September, a summer peak of 6.2 percent in August, and a low of 0.9 percent in June. While most regions are seeing sustained increases in both positivity and hospitalization rates, today Region 3 is experiencing triple the amount of COVID-related hospital admissions since early September.
In the coming days, IDPH will continue to track the positivity rate in Region 3 to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigations should remain in place. If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% for three consecutive days, then the regions will return to Phase 4 mitigations under the Restore Illinois Plan. If the positivity rate averages between 6.5% and 8%, the new mitigations will remain in place and unchanged. If the positivity rate averages greater than or equal to 8% after 14 days, more stringent mitigations may be applied to further reduce spread of the virus.
As of today, including Region 3, a total of nine of the state’s 11 regions have triggered one of the state’s failsafe state-action metric. Regions 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 will all soon operate under Tier 1 mitigation measures given that these regions continue to report a 7-day rolling positivity rate above 8 percent. By tomorrow, Regions 10 and 11 will both operate under Tier 1 mitigations given that these regions triggered additional mitigations based on sustained increases in both positivity and hospitalization rates. Region 1 is currently operating under Tier 2 mitigation measures after continuing to see a rise in positivity, even under the Tier 1 mitigation framework, with the highest rolling positivity average in the state.
As part of the administration’s robust response to the pandemic, the state continues to strengthen its nation-leading testing operation, given that testing remains a critical step to reduce further spread of the virus. Testing is readily available throughout Illinois, with the state now averaging more than 72,000 tests per day. For a more targeted approach, the state provides mobile testing allowing testing to be directed toward communities most impacted by COVID-19. In Region 3, mobile sites will be at the Sangamon County Health Department this weekend. To find the nearest testing center, please visit DPH.Illinois.Gov/Testing.
IDPH will continue to work closely with local health departments in Region 3 to provide education to the public and offer information to businesses and organizations on safe ways to reopen. The significance of face coverings, social distancing, and hand washing have been consistently emphasized by the administration throughout the pandemic.
A full list of mitigation measures pertaining to some businesses and industries may be found on the DCEO website at www.dceocovid19resources.com/restore-illinois.
With new COVID-19 mitigation measures announced, my colleagues and I are continuing to advocate for the small bars and restaurants that make up an integral part of our districts. Read our letter to Mayor Lightfoot and Governor Pritzker below: pic.twitter.com/KsmoFW7SG7
*** UPDATE *** The governor has sent a letter in response…
Thank you for your October 28, 2020 letter regarding the impact of the second COVID-19 wave on independent businesses, especially restaurants. We agree that small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and COVID is having a devastating impact on them and the entire economy.
The restrictions are necessary as cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising and will not subside without mitigations. We are glad to have created the Business Interruption Grant (“BIG”) program to support small businesses through these difficult times. We have already expedited BIG grants to businesses affected by resurgence mitigations with $220 million available in the latest round. We have already distributed 1,900 grants to taverns and restaurants across the state and 630 of those grants in Chicago. Of those 630 Chicago grants, 195 were granted in your respective districts, totaling over $3.4 million dollars of direct state investment.
We have been a vocal and active in our advocacy for more support from the federal government directly to bars and restaurants. None of the Republican U.S. Representatives have indicated a willingness to support any new resources to support the impacts of COVID on bars and restaurants- let alone any other industry in Illinois.
* As subscribers have known for almost two weeks, Vote Yes for Fairness’ own polling has this nip and tuck. Here’s Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold…
Outside the presidential election, there arguably isn’t any bigger outcome Tuesday than whether Illinoisans vote to change the state constitution to set up a new way of taxing workers’ paychecks based on how much they make.
But there’s a debate now as to when voters actually will have an idea of whether their income taxes will change.
Thanks to a potential flood of uncounted mail-in ballots and Illinois’ latest-in-the-nation deadline to count them, one of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s top political strategists said it likely will be well past Election Day before it’s clear whether the ballot question is a winner or loser.
“I think the odds are pretty high,” said Quentin Fulks, Pritzker’s former deputy campaign manager and chairman of the political committee pushing for the graduated income tax, Vote Yes for Fairness. “I’m anticipating probably a week to two weeks for us to know.” […]
Fulks says his committee’s polling shows the battle for changing the taxing structure in the state remains incredibly tight. Survey results his group released from mid-October found 55% of the Illinois electorate supported the graduated tax amendment, with 40% opposed.
…Adding… The antis think fears about a long wait are overblown…
“With historic numbers of voters turning out early, we anticipate clerks across the state will count the vast majority of these early ballots on Election Day, giving us a clear direction on the outcome of the tax hike amendment,” said Lissa Druss, a spokeswoman for the Coalition To Stop The Proposed Tax Hike Amendment.
According to several sources, the Illinois High School Association will announce Wednesday that the basketball season can start as scheduled. It’s a totally unexpected move that directly contradicts the guidelines Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health outlined on Tuesday. […]
“After diligent discussion, the Board has made the decision today to follow the recommendation of the IHSA SMAC as it relates to basketball,” IHSA spokesperson Matt Troha wrote in an email to athletic directors. “The Board remains considerate of rising COVID-19 cases in Illinois and understand the importance of adhering to safety guidelines for the good of all citizens. However, the Board has not been presented any causal evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play by the IDPH or any other health organization nationally or internationally.”
The email says the IHSA will “allow local school officials to make decisions related to participation.”
The disagreement between the IHSA and the governor/IDPH likely means the final decision will come down to the individual school districts. Theoretically the school districts would open themselves up to tremendous liability by playing against the guidelines of the governor and the IDPH.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gov. Pritzker was asked about this today…
We’ve told school districts what the rules are and I think they all know. The IHSA may have their views on it but school districts know what the rules are and I think that it’s unfortunate, but they would be probably taking on legal liability if they went ahead and move beyond what the state has said is the mitigation standard.
The Illinois High School Association recently announced its intention to move forward with the regularly scheduled basketball season, in contradiction to public health guidance. As COVID-19 cases rise across the State, the importance of following public health guidance has only increased.
We recognize the value of sports in students’ lives and share your hope that students can return safely to play this school year. However, at this moment, we urge you to prioritize health and safety, and to returning the 1.76 million students currently learning remotely to the classroom.
The parents and families of Illinois have trusted us as leaders not only with the education of their children but with their health and safety while in our care. Public health experts have determined that basketball poses a high risk of COVID-19 transmission and is not currently safe to play.
Defying the state’s public health guidance opens schools up to liability and other ramifications that may negatively impact school communities.
Our Illinois schools and communities are safer when we work together in support of public health standards. We are relying on superintendents and school leaders to make responsible choices to protect health and safety and to focus on bringing all of our students back to the classroom.
Chicago health officials released staggering numbers Tuesday that show just how quickly the coronavirus is spreading in the city, with one estimate indicating that more than 57,000 residents could currently be infected with the virus.
During a weekly press conference discussing the city’s latest travel restrictions, Dr. Allison Arwady, the director of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said that approximately 8,213 Chicago residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and are currently considered to be “active” cases.
Those numbers are already high, but city health experts fear the virus could be even more widespread than that. According to Arwady, officials believe there could be between five and seven times as many active cases as are currently being reported, due to residents who haven’t been tested or who aren’t showing symptoms.
Gov. JB Pritzker said the mitigations were triggered in Chicago by seven straight days of hospital admission increases and eight consecutive days of rising test positivity. In Chicago, the number of non-ICU patients is up 72% since late September and the number of those in ICU is up 56% since October 1.
Chicago’s top public health official seemed to anticipate the move before the governor’s announcement.
“If the governor makes this decision, we will obviously support it,” Dr. Allison Arwady said earlier on Tuesday. “The numbers that we have seen here give me no reason to think that this is not imminent.”
But the mayor and her top doc were clearly not on the same page. Click here for more on that.
In July, the Illinois Department of Health published its Restore Illinois Resurgence Plan, which laid out the metrics that would trigger restrictions on nonessential businesses and gatherings.
Pritzker’s actions on Tuesday followed that plan, and it was unclear why Lightfoot and her administration did not understand the metrics it details. […]
Hours after Lightfoot told reporters on Oct. 19 that she didn’t “think there is a cause and effect” between the surge in confirmed cases of the coronavirus and bars and restaurants, Pritzker told the news media he was confident there was a causal relationship between the fast spread of the virus and indoor dining and drinking.
Two days later, Lightfoot acknowledged that the risk of getting COVID-19 is “greatest” at bars and restaurants, “because people gather, they take their masks off, they have a drink, they socialize, they talk.”
That group could eventually include more than 7,500 restaurants statewide, according to Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia, who said he raised his estimate to almost a third of the industry that could be sunk in part due to the governor’s “extreme” measures.
“Why the full shutdown? At least let us try 25% capacity,” Toia said. “We know how to do this right — masking, social distancing and sanitizing. Any business doing it right should be kept open, and any one that isn’t should be shut down. We don’t understand why the restaurants are the only ones affected.”
The rules issued by Pritzker, who has cited studies suggesting bars and restaurants are “super spreading” sites, also mean other city gatherings will be limited to 25 people or 25% of room capacity.
The Democratic governor noted Chicago is averaging twice as many COVID-19 hospital admissions per day compared to a month ago, while its average seven-day testing positivity rate has almost doubled since the beginning of October.
* Jamie Munks, Gregory Pratt and Dan Petrella at the Tribune…
Late last month, Lightfoot cited a decrease in COVID-19 cases as she allowed bars that don’t serve food to reopen for indoor drinking. She also eased rules on restaurants, gyms and other retailers, allowing them to increase capacity. The changes were Lightfoot’s attempt to ease the financial burden on Chicago businesses by lifting frequently criticized restrictions.
But they also came as the number of new COVID-19 cases per day was hovering around 300, well above the 200-case threshold the mayor set months ago as a goal before moderating restrictions.
Chicago now is averaging nearly 800 new cases a day, Arwady said. To put it into perspective, she said 400 was a level of concern and 200 was the level the city wanted to stay under.
So, Toia does have a decent point. Chicago restaurants were limited to 25 percent capacity until the end of September, when the mayor upped the cap and then the spread greatly intensified. But whether reverting back to that 25 percent limit would actually drive numbers back down is another story. I hope to ask that question of the governor today.
*** UPDATE *** Inevitable…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot's dropped her challenge to Gov. Pritzker's ban on indoor dining and bars. She didn't have a lot of options, even though she was upset with the governor's plan.
Today, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s campaign released its 11th television ad, “Truth,” which lays out the repeated fact checks of Congressman Rodney Davis’ lies. Multiple independent fact checks have called Davis’ ads and claims false, yet he continues to fill the airwaves with lies about Betsy as well as his disastrous health care record.
The KMOV fact check found Davis’ claim that Betsy Dirksen Londrigan is lying about not taking any money from Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and that Madigan spent nearly $300,000 to elect Dirksen Londrigan is “false.” The $300,000 Davis refers to is from the Democratic Party of Illinois, a group dedicated to electing Democrats to office in Illinois.
Davis also lied about Dirksen Londrigan breaking her promise not to accept corporate dollars, another claim KMOV confirmed is “false.” Unlike Davis, who has accepted more than $3 million in corporate PAC money, Dirksen Londrigan is refusing to accept corporate PAC money, now or when in Congress, so she won’t be beholden to anyone except the Central Illinois families she represents.
A separate fact check from WGLT also confirmed that Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement despite his repeated false claims to the contrary. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would strip health care coverage from millions, including more than 31,000 in the 13th District, and remove protections from more than 282,500 13th District residents with pre-existing conditions.
“After all the ads, you deserve to know the truth,” said the narrator. “Independent fact checkers say Rodney Davis’ attacks against Betsy Londrigan just aren’t true. … The truth: Mike Madigan is not funding Londrigan’s campaign. Davis is also lying about his record on health care. “Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement.””
“Trump Campaign Co-Chair Rodney Davis is taking a page out of the Trump Playbook by doubling down even after being called out repeatedly for his lies by independent fact checks,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. “Davis doesn’t want to run on his horrible health record so he’s resorting to lying to his constituents about his opponent and his disastrous record. Central Illinois families can’t trust Rodney Davis.”
Betsy: I’m Betsy Londrigan and I approve this message.
Narrator: After all the ads, you deserve to know the truth.
Independent fact checkers say Rodney Davis’ attacks against Betsy Londrigan just aren’t true.
Reporter: That claim is false… That claim is false.
Narrator: The truth: Mike Madigan is not funding Londrigan’s campaign.
Davis is also lying about his record on health care.
“Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement.”
We can’t trust Rodney Davis.
* Meanwhile…
Yet another independent fact checker has confirmed that the false claims in Betsy Londrigan’s attack ad featuring the former owner of the Feed Store are not true. In a tweet, WCIA’s Mark Maxwell said the claims in Londrigan’s “misleading attack ad” are “baseless” and “false.”
From WCIA:
Richardson said the Londrigan campaign “called up and asked if we’d be willing to make that ad, and explained what the subject was, so I thought about it for about a day or so and said, ‘sure, yeah.’”
Londrigan’s campaign did not make a strategist or advertising consultant available for an interview, but the campaign acknowledged the ad’s message was crafted to connect with voters who are frustrated with the economic fallout from the pandemic.
“The PPP loan program was supposed to be a lifeline for small businesses, but we got the run around while political insiders got the money first, and funds ran out,” Richardson said in the ad.
Fact check: PPP funds were quickly replenished, and while the application window has closed, the program still has available funds remaining. The temporary lack of funding did not prevent Richardson from applying for a loan. There’s no evidence Davis ever tipped the scales in favor of his brother’s company or against any other company.
“Rodney Davis’s family got to the front of the line for a million dollar payout, and he voted to keep it secret while businesses like ours suffered,” Richardson says.
Fact check: Several hundred thousand companies successfully applied for wildly popular COVID-19 relief loans within the first few days of the program’s opening. There is no evidence the Congressman’s influence expedited their application or slowed down anyone else’s.
The Londrigan campaign cites a vote on House Resolution 6782 to support their claim that “he voted to keep it secret.”
Fact check: The text of that bill would have only required loans worth more than $2 million to be publicly disclosed, and would not have applied to the loan in question.
The Davis campaign says the political attack ad is “absurd” and “dishonest.”
WCIA video: Fact check: Davis never voted to keep brother’s loan “a secret”
Last week, KMOV called the false claims in a similar TV ad from the Londrigan campaign “misleading” and also said “there is no evidence showing Rep. Rodney Davis had anything to do with his family getting PPP.” The Illinois Times also reported, “There also is no proof that the congressman’s family was treated any differently than anyone else…”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Congressional Leadership Fund is up with a new ad…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Congressman Davis…
Today, Rodney Davis’ campaign for Congress released two new ads, “No Proof” and “Very Best.” The first ad, “No Proof,” highlights independent fact checks of Betsy Londrigan’s lies about Rodney Davis and his family, and also highlights Rodney’s support for the bipartisan Paycheck Protection Program.
The second ad, “Very Best,” highlights Londrigan’s close ties to Mike Madigan and Rodney’s bipartisan work to lower healthcare costs, protect pre-existing condition coverage, and support small business.
More than 124,000 hours of overtime, equaling more than $6.4 million.
That is what has been dished out to employees of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) because of the increased need for their services.
Representatives from around Illinois on both sides of the aisle say 124,000 hours of overtime in nine months is not sustainable.
Rep. Kathy Willis, D-Northlake, said it is not fair to the employees or the people of Illinois.
However, IDES said they really had no other option. […]
Willis said the crux of this issue is the lack of employees that the department has. She said with all of this overtime, more progress should have been made thus far.
Discuss.
…Adding… Rep. Willis in comments…
Want to add something that i actually said in the interview that conveniently got cut… I actually thanked the employees that were willing to work the overtime to help the people that needed unemployment help. I also mentioned that having people work such long hours of overtime that adds to the stress of their job and again how the employees were willing to step up and work through the back log.
